Potrero Hill, San Francisco

With the recent focus on the planning process for Potrero Hill and Sophie Maxwell’s push for more affordable housing in the eastern neighborhoods, this article from the Chronicle seemed rather timely:

This holiday season, one San Francisco artist will score the lowest-priced home in The City.

The live/work loft condo unit at the Goodman 2 building at 1695 18th St. in Potrero Hill, the home of the Encore Theatre Co.’s The Thick House performance space, is available for $169,946, according to Pacific Union GMAC Realtor Linda Thompson.

Sale of the unit is regulated through the Mayor’s Office of Housing, and is only available to a working artist with a San Francisco business license annually earning less than $51,100, or $58,350 for a couple.

All types of artists may apply to buy the unit; the previous owner was a filmmaker. The first person to receive approvals on the application materials and financing will win the home, Thompson said. There is no bidding up or down.

• Cut-rate S.F. home for an artist [SF Chronicle]

A little bit of linkage to make up for the lack of blog posts over the past month (life’s been busy):

• A website and blog has been set-up to disseminate and discuss info related to the planning process for Potrero Hill. Plan Potrero Hill SF

• Potrero Hill artist Nancy Rodger has posted her photos from the Farleys Dog Parade. View photos.

• Starr King Elementary school has launched their website.

• The Potrero View, our neighborhood newspaper, is now viewable online!

Potrero Hill in the News:

• Dogpatch’s the Balloon lady was featured in the SF Chronicle story about the high price of helium. View story

• Thick House’s production of Gibraltar receives rave reviews from the Chronicle. View story

• A feature story on the Valencia Gardens public housing rebirth, with a mention of the Potrero Hill projects needing the same work. View story

• The Chronicle ran a series of articles about SF General. View story

• The leading ladies of tango at the Metronome Dance Center Annex. View story

• The SF Weekly reports on the circumstances surrounding the deadly shooting of 22 year old Dernae Wysinger and his 2 year old son Naemon Wysinger last year at the Potrero Hill projects. View story

• Dogpatch’s wine bar Yield makes the Chronicle. View story

This past weekend Klein’s shut its doors after 27 years on the Hill. On Saturday, a farewell party was held featuring deli food, a Jeff Gaeto jazz quartet, hula performances on the street by Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu, and Christopher Irion’s PhotoBooth community portrait display.

Highlights of the party included a reading of a proclamation signed by Gavin Newsom naming Dec 16, Klein’s Deli & Avery McGinn day. Avery, Klein’s owner, assured everyone that she was doing fine, that she was going to try to bring some of the Klein’s favorites over to Good Life, and that if she could find another space on the Hill, Klein’s would be back.

There were videographers on hand interviewing Klein’s customers, and Avery mentioned that the video clips would probably find their way to YouTube.

The PhotoBooth will be on display through the end of the year. Be sure to view it at night, as the photos are lit up like a lightbox.

And for Kleins’ Deli update, visit their website.

Photo by: Grimmey

The former Esprit building at 900 Minnesota is in the process of being deconstructed to make way for new condos, and the Chronicle reports that the sought-after structural lumber is being set aside for future use.

New timbers of similar size and quality are largely unavailable because there are no commercial tracts of virgin Douglas fir forest left in the country. If you want gargantuan beams, you have to salvage them — or pay somebody to do it for you.

The market for old, big-dimensional lumber has thus skyrocketed in recent years, driven by millionaires who covet the wood for vacation homes and corporations that use it in resort lodges.

The sheer size of the timber coming out of the Esprit building — vacant since the company closed it in 2001 — is impressive. Many of the beams are 18 by 14 inches in width and breadth, and 40 feet long. In today’s market, such timbers could fetch about $6,400 each.

Eli Krainock, a general contractor working on the Esprit project, said the lumber coming out of the site could sell for a total of $1 million.

Chronicle photo by Lea Suzuki

Old Timber Gets New Life [ SF Chronicle ]
900 Minnesota Update [ PotreroHillSF ]
900 Minnesota [ PotreroHillSF ]

(and if you don’t get through this entire post, please vote for Jane Kim & Kim-Shree Maufas for San Francisco School Board - Nov 7)

When I started this blog a year and a half ago, I thought I’d be living on Potrero Hill for life (well, maybe that’s a stretch … but at least for a while). That was before the birth of my second child in April, and before I started thinking more seriously about kindergarten choices for my daughter (who enrolls in the fall of 2008).

Nowadays, I regularly think about moving down to the peninsula. The high cost of living in the city (I currently own a 2 bedroom condo which my family will eventually outgrow) and the current student assignment process for public schools, make me question whether or not staying in Potrero Hill and San Francisco is the wisest decision for my family.

I’m not alone. The San Francisco public schools continues to lose middle class families like my own. Families either enroll their students in private schools or leave the city altogether.

This past year, the San Francisco Unified School District lost 1,000 students.

Why the school board vote matters

There are 3 board seats available, and the next school board will be making several key decisions which will affect the future of San Francisco schools. A new superintendent will be hired, the district’s projected $5.8 million shortfall will need to be addressed, adjustments will be made to the student assignment process, and more schools will be closed.

Even though several motivated Potrero Hill parents with pre-school aged children (myself included) successfully campaigned to save Daniel Webster Elementary school from closure this past year, it’s a foregone conclusion that it’s days are numbered. The school has lost between 48-92 students in the past year, and it’s closure is probably the fiscally prudent action to take.

What would keep me on the hill

I’d prefer to send my daughter to a nearby school, and the newly inaugurated mandarin immersion program at Starr King Elementary would be on my list of school options for my daughter (for those uninitiated, you can choose up to 7 schools). But it’s survival is still tenuous; of the 40 available kindergarten spots this year, only 25 were filled.

I would like to see the SFUSD support Starr King via heavier promotion of the mandarin immersion program. There is also a private pre-school (Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School) leasing space within the school. I would like to see the school district extend that lease. The current school population of Starr King is mostly African-American and Latinos. Many of the children attending the pre-school are caucasian, and their parents have been huge advocates of the school and it’s charismatic principal, Chris Rosenberg.

Potrero Hill needs middle schools. A K-8 would be ideal. In hindsight, we should have been advocating for merging Daniel Webster with Enola Maxwell and creating a K-8 on the hill.

There’s still hope. Mission Bay has set aside 2.2 acres for the San Francisco Unified School District. Mayor Newsom reportedly wants to turn it into a High School focused on bio tech. I think it should be turned into a K-8, and here’s why:

• There are 300+ families on Potrero Hill with pre-school aged children … we need nearby schools to keep those families in the city.

• It’s a well known fact that most of the future housing development is occurring in the southeast sector. In fact Potrero Hill / Mission Bay is expected to triple in population over the next decade. We need kindergartens, not high schools.

Mayor Newsom talks about wanting to keeping middle-class families in San Francisco … I think a good place to start is Potrero Hill. Our neighborhood is bursting with kids, and because of the diverse ethnicity of it’s inhabitants, we have an incredible opportunity to create a truly integrated school.

School Board Endorsements

A few weeks ago, many of the candidates running for school board were generous with their time, and spoke with parents on the Hill. After listening to them, I’ve made the decision to endorse Jane Kim and Kim-Shree Maufas for school board, and hope you will join me in voting for only these 2 candidates on Nov 7.

P.S. And for the record, I’m really hoping to stay on Potrero Hill … it’s hands down my favorite neighborhood in San Francisco.

update: NBC 11 just interviewed me about this post, and it should be airing tonight at 6 pm (Thurs, Nov 2)

update 2: The NBC 11 website posted an article (w/ video from their broadcast) about sfist.com’s post persuading me to stay on the hill

update 3: Thanks to Socketsite, the Civic Center blog, and Starked SF for linkage.

mike lin